Mt. Washington: Six down and one to go....

This last weekend marked race 6 of the 7 BC Cup races in the 2009 Series. It was a bit of a loaded weekend for me: last weekend's crash was still fresh in my mind, the week leading up to the race had a serious lack of mountain bike riding, I was tired and feeling flat from multiple 30+ degree days with a lack of lake-time, and the pressure is mounting for me to actually win a BC Cup race.

The race was up in Mount Washington Alpine Resort, which is on the island...which meant NO FERRIES!! Friday we headed up to pre-ride the course, which was the driest I've ever seen, then headed to some friend's house for an amazing dinner and a night's sleep on the farm. Saturday we woke up to clear skies and after a quick breakfast, headed up to the resort for our early 10am start (a bit of a relief after reviewing the expected heat for the day!).

Off the start line Katherine Short tore off and up the first ski-run climb (literally...straight up a ski run!) with Jean Anne McKirdy responding behind her. After my legs had been lulled to sleep at the line waiting for the start, I wasn't ready or able to respond. I kept my pace nice, steady, and comfortable up the climb to pass Katherine just before the singletrack. Into the singletrack I bobbled and pulled aside to let Katherine (still on her bike) past. Back onto the bike and up the steep, ugly second section of ski-run where I was able to catch back up to Katherine and pass her before heading into the rolling singletrack that followed.

My legs were working fine, but my normal technical confidence was definitely lacking; rather than speed, I was forced to focus on riding a clean, steady race. I stayed within myself on the descents, kept it just-above-comfortable in the working sections, and just-a-bit-more-uncomfortable on the steep climbs. I kept my second place position for the rest of the race without seeing anyone until the 3rd (and last!) lap when Katherine rounded a corner 10 seconds behind me at the half-lap point (with about 15 minutes to go). I attacked on a rolling section of fire road and headed up the climb at much-worse-than-comfortable pace to head into the singletrack. With one of the senior guys behind me I focussed on riding smooth through the downhill and steadily hammering the climb through the feed zone.

After the feedzone, the lap descended down a fire road and then climbed up a loose double track, across a road, and then up a technical singletrack and into rolling, rocky, rooty singletrack and into the finishing straight. I put myself into a very ugly place on the uphills and subsequently bobbled on an uphill rock face. I couldn't get back on my bike (a theme from last week's crash??) and had to take a deep breath and force myself to calm down. Onto the bike, across the rock mesa, down the rocked road and into the finishing straight only 1 minute ahead of Katherine to finish up in 2nd. Drew kept the household balanced with a 2nd place only 2 seconds behind Tom Skinner!

Next, I'm looking forward to a weekend off at home, Crankworx in Whistler (with Shimano) and then a final BC Cup at Sunpeaks Resort in Kamloops, BC-a resurrected course for the series, but a new course for me!

The rest of the 3 day weekend Drew and I spent playing tour-guide with one of my best friends from high school, Hannah. We spent a beautiful day hiking, swimming, and climbing in the Sooke Potholes (above), then headed to Sombrio for a late-afternoon hike on the beach. Sunday night we headed downtown for food from Ferris's Bar and Grill and sat across the harbour listening to Symphony Splash followed by a fireworks display....not a bad way to spend a weekend!